Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act Compliance at Michigan Community Colleges

In 1989, Congress passed the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act Amendments to address illegal alcohol and drug abuse on college campuses. To receive federal funding, each college must comply by implementing an alcohol and drug prevention program, but the federal government and some colleges have paid little attention to this policy. Recently, the Department of Education vowed to intensify its scrutiny of colleges and has begun issuing fines for noncompliance. There have been no studies on this topic in over 20 years, leaving community college administrators, in particular, without guidance on how to implement the required programs. In this study, I analyzed public reports from Michigan community colleges to evaluate compliance with the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act and to examine their alcohol and drug programs. I found that 21 of Michigan’s 28 community colleges partially complied with the Act, only two implemented all the required mandates, and five were noncompliant. Most notably, colleges failed to collect substantive programmatic outcomes data, and few offered evidence-based alcohol and drug prevention programs to students. I provide rationale for why colleges should invest in improving compliance and the quality of alcohol and drug programs, and I offer seven recommendations to community college administrators on how to do so.